Generally if you soar right into a automotive and drive it for the very first time, you have already got a stable concept of the way it’s going to really feel.

Possibly you’ve pushed all of the earlier fashions, famous the sturdy household really feel and aren’t anticipating any main upsets. Or perhaps you’ve pushed a ton of vehicles from the identical auto maker utilizing that engine and transmission mixture.

However driving one thing completely alien to you is probably the most enjoyable. And the FD RX-7 Spirit R I drove a few years in the past for a video alongside an R34 Nissan R34 GT-R positively fitted into that class.

Clearly I used to be excited to drive the R34, too, significantly because it was a uncommon Nür model. However I’d already pushed varied R34s so wasn’t anticipating it to throw any curve balls.

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Nonetheless, I had no body of reference for the RX-7. I keep in mind studying good issues concerning the FD-generation vehicles after they had been launched in 1992, and I at all times preferred the way in which they regarded, however that they had already gone off sale by the point I began writing for magazines on the flip of the century so I’d by no means even sat in a single.

My sole rotary expertise then was driving the 2000s RX-8 coupe. And although I liked the concept of the RX-8, I by no means actually discovered them that thrilling. I may by no means have imagined what I used to be lacking.

And I couldn’t have discovered a greater factory-spec RX-7 to introduce me to the mannequin than the Spirit R. Constructed proper on the finish of the RX-7’s life and restricted to simply 1,500 models, the Spirit R got here loaded with all the greatest bits seen on Mazda’s earlier limited-edition FDs.

The automotive I drove was a Sort A model, which meant it had shiny pink carbon-shell Recaro buckets up entrance and no seats within the again, Bilstein suspension, cross-drilled brake discs, BBS alloy wheels and an adjustable rear spoiler.

However even stripped of all these fancy bits, I’d most likely nonetheless have been blown away as a result of the RX-7 will get the fundamentals so proper. For some motive I used to be anticipating it to really feel like an everyday coupe with a reasonably droney tuneless engine. However what I discovered was a correct sports activities automotive that oozed character from each pore. The driving place is ideal, the steering is stuffed with really feel and that twin-turbo 13B rotary is large enjoyable.

And since these turbos work sequentially, the ability supply is way much less on/off than I used to be anticipating. At low revs the primary turbo spins early filling the outlet within the torque curve you get with many highly effective turbocharged vehicles, then at 4000 rpm the large turbo kicks in and hurls you down the highway. The one space it provides second greatest to the RX-8 is its potential to spin in the direction of double figures on the large central rev counter. The newer naturally aspirated engine revs to 9000 rpm, in contrast with 8000 rpm for the extra highly effective, turbocharged RX-7.

Mazda rated these later RX-7s at 276 hp, up from 252 hp within the early vehicles (237 hp in Europe), and although neither of these numbers, or a mid-5-second 0-60 mph time, will win any bragging contests right now, a circa-2800 lb (1273 kg) curb weight means it feels a lot stronger.

RX-7 manufacturing completed in 2002 and the RX-8 that picked up the rotary baton the next yr was all performed by 2012. Mazda has intermittently made noises about bringing the RX-7 again, however we’ve seen nothing concrete, and given the automotive shopping for public’s lack of curiosity in sports activities vehicles, it will most likely must be a sporty crossover or a tie up with one other carmaker very like the BMW Z4 and Toyota Supra program.

As for Mazda’s rotary expertise, that was meant to be returning as a spread extender on the electrical MX-30 crossover, however current reviews recommend Mazda is likely to be backtracking on these plans.